Pattani couple arrested with 1.8m yaba pills
A Pattani couple were arrested in Udon Thani’s Muang district on Friday night while allegedly trying to transport 1.8 million yaba pills worth Bt150 million from a warehouse on Mitraparp Highway to the South.
Pattani couple arrested with 1.8m yaba pills
Police told a press conference on Monday that the couple – Annop Puteh, 44, and wife Suhaila Deuramae, 21 – who both ran a restaurant and karaoke bar in Malaysia, claimed they were hired by a Malaysian investor to transport the drugs by a 10-wheel truck. They said this was their fourth drug run.
In the three previous runs, the couple said they drove a lookout pick-up truck and two accomplices drove the 10-wheel truck. They said they got paid Bt100,000 each.
Police staked out the warehouse after they received a tip-off that a gang would move a large amount of drugs from Udon Thani.
Annop helped two other men – identified as Maruding Masatae and Heng (last name unknown) – to load the drugs onto a 10-wheel truck, while Suhaila waited at another spot on the highway.
Maruding and Heng escaped when police attempted to apprehend them.
Investigators found that an unnamed Malaysian investor had rented the land to build a warehouse in January, allegedly to store illicit drugs he bought from a Laotian gang before transporting them to the South and Malaysia.
The drugs, which had an estimated street value of Bt150 million, were smuggled into Thailand across the border in Bung Kan, police said.